Customer Reviews

Celtic Woman: Songs From The Heart

5 star:		(105)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Like some other Celtic Woman fans I noticed that Alex's rendition of 'You'll Be In My Heart' (apparently some other numbers also) are not listed on the DVD to be released in January and that's a crying shame because she really lights up the venue. It is one of the very best numbers on the PBS version. I would suggest that everyone who feels the entire concert should be included do what I did and send EMI an email voicing your concern over some music mogul cutting tracks from the DVD. They won't listen to one complaint but a few thousand (or million) might change their minds. This show is Celtic Woman's best to date and EMI shouldn't snip dingle it to death by giving Lynn and Alex the short end on solos.
David A. Henderson
Saint Louis, MO

EMI says the reason some tracks are deleted from the DVD is they don't have publishing clearances(Lawyers!...ya gotta love 'em.)Others were cleared for TV broadcast only. Great!! That really makes me feel better...Heh.

Jan 31 UPDATE: Having now received the DVD I must eat some crow which will, no doubt, delight Tim Bowen. It appears the DVD may have actually been processed by Elmer Fudd since the video quality is really poor for a digital product, especially as the camera pulls back, AND is not on a par with the Other 4 CW DVDs. I am in agreement with other reviewers on this point. It may be my tin ear but the audio was fine once I set it to the 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround option. The sound on all 5 CW DVDs will threaten to shake the paint off your walls if you don't back the volume off a bit before turning them on. Once I got the volume balanced between what was coming out of my TV's speakers (a big screen Samsung HDTV) and what was coming through my Sony Surround system the audio was fine. The performance is still a 5+ but the DVD itself is about a 1 because of the poor video quality.

I assume that everyone has seen the performance on PBS so I won't review the material itself. But, if you are buying this DVD to relive the experience, you'll be sorely disappointed. Overall, the quality of the recording is comparable to an old VHS tape. The audio is similar to vinyl. No Dolby, no 5.1, no nada. Just plain old two channel stereo with drop outs. The video is on a par with VHS (480i), certainly not nearly as good as the PBS presentation. If I did not know better, I'd think that this a knock-off from the back alleys of Hong Kong.

In addition, the extras (The making of...) are minimal and certainly do not add measureably to the experience.

Bottom line, record your PBS station and send the money to them.

p.s. This DVD was played on Samsung Blu-Ray with 1080p up-converting feeding a 54" 1080P Plasma. Sound was fed via optical cable to a Sony Master digital receiver driving a Klipsch theater speaker system.

I saw this on PBS today and just when I thought the girls couldn't get any better, they did! The concert was shot in an excellent location and the girls' voices are in top form. I don't even know where to begin because this concert is amazing and probably one of the best they have ever done. The songs really show off their voices, good choices were made.

Some of the highlights are Lisa's gorgeous renditions of Fields of Gold and The Moon's A Harsh Mistress, Mairead's energetic performances of The Coast of Galiçia and Slumber My Darling/The Mason's Apron, the fun, upbeat cover of Nil Sé'n Lá, Chloe's version of When You Believe, the group performance of O, America! (I can't get through this song without shedding a tear), and Lynn's beautiful My Lagan Love. One of Alex's songs that I like, You'll Be In My Heart, was on the show, but is not on the song list here. It's a shame that's not on the DVD. I think there are a few other omissions from what I've been reading. The Call is a good opening number and You Raise Me Up was a great closer. I have nothing but good things to say about this show, I would recommend it to all fans of Celtic Woman and this could possibly gain some new fans for the girls. I would also recommend the CD to go along with it, there's a standard and deluxe version of that.

I'm a big Celtic Woman fan, having seem them live numerous times and owning all of their CDs and DVDs. That said, I'm an honest reviewer, and if I see a problem with a product, I say it. I see a few issues with this DVD, so let's discuss the good and the bad.

Overall, this is a great show. Would I say it's their best to date? I'm not sure. Those of you who saw the Isle of Hope tour last year will recognize a number of songs, which I was very happy about since there will not be an Isle of Hope CD or DVD. It's great that we haven't lost those songs.

The location is superb. I was happy they chose to record outdoors in Ireland again, however challenging it may be. You can't beat the lush, green backdrop and Powerscourt is divine! The girls look fantastic as always, and I must say these are my favorite dresses to date.

Now, let's start with the bad news. Here are my issues: First, the song list. Overall, it's good, but it's not great. In my opinion, there are far too many slow numbers and not enough fast, upbeat songs. "Nil S'en La" is about as far as it goes on the upbeat numbers, along with Máiréad's solos, of course. I really missed having songs similar to "Sing Out!" from ANJ (just to give you an example). There were a LOT of slow numbers in this show (the majority are slow), and after a while I was needing something upbeat to keep my interest.

That kind of leads me into my second point, which is that they absolutely should have included "Carolina Rua" in the show. I think that was their biggest mistake here. It's a fast, cute, cheerful song, and it would have brought a little spice to the show when it was needed. There were just too many slow moments for me. They redeemed themselves a bit by having the "Finale/Mo Ghile Mear" at the end, but still. In addition, they need to axe "Danny Boy" and "You Raise Me Up." They've done them over and over again in DVDs, and while the ladies do a fantastic job, they've been done. It's time to retire them and give the people something else. I'm at the point where I always skip them on the CD and DVD.

My next issue is with the choice of solos. I find it rather unfair that Lynn and Alex, the two newsest girls, only get one solo each. I'm not going to lie, I'm a super biased Lisa fan and a big Máiréad fan as well, so I'm not complaining that they get more solos, but in the interest of fairness I think it's a bit sad that Lynn and Alex only get to show off their solo abilities once in the entire DVD. (Again, if they'd included "Carolina Rua," part of this problem would have been solved!).

Now, for the good. #1 best thing about this DVD? The extras! Even though a bunch of additional behind the scenes segments have shown up on YouTube that aren't on the DVD, the extras on the DVD are just as good, and clearly the best we've seen on a DVD so far. I mean, come on, you really can't beat seeing the girls goofing off and having a good time. It reminds us that they're just regular people too. ;)

#2 best thing? The sheer talent from these ladies. Time and time again they don't cease to amaze me, and for those of you who claim they lipsynch, I can assure you they do not. I have sat front row at their shows and those are their natural voices, plain and simple. Some of the song choices are simply gorgeous: "Non C'e Piu" is an amazing song, and I of course adore Lisa's "Fields of Gold." "N'il S'en La" is arguably one of the best songs on this DVD, if not THE best, and one that I could watch over and over. I think that will be the biggest crowd pleaser at the live shows. "Coast of Galicia" is FANTASTIC, and I was ecstatic that they included it. Again, it gives some much needed spice!

Anyway, like I said before, overall a good DVD with a few minor issues. I think if CW wants to keep growing their younger crowd, they should have included faster numbers, but nevertheless I still love this DVD. I have come to enjoy them live much more than I enjoy them on any CD or DVD, because the live shows are simply amazing and a LOT of fun. I think this Songs From the Heart tour is going to be spectacular.

It's enough to make me cry. Not from the beautiful music, but from the truly below average picture quality. When I first watched the DVD I assumed the inclement/foggy weather, which plagued them during the hours leading up to the video recording, had caused it to be difficult to get the cameras to find the correct focus, but ... just a couple nights ago I caught a replay of the PBS telecast and the PBS broadcast is breathtakingly clear. Now something else is clear. It's clear that the production company (who released this disc) either thinks people are still viewing DVDs on 19" CRT television sets or, perhaps they just don't have much respect for people who expect to get the best today's technology offers. Furthermore, it's hard to explain WHY the producers would spend so much for the staging of the performance, record it in HD quality and then release it on DVD in a quality so poor that it is little better than VHS with a bit of up scaling.
I will say that the audio on this disc is probably the best of the Celtic Woman collection but even it is second fiddle to the PBS broadcast audio. Most noticeable was that the fireworks at the finale are almost entirely muted.
I don't regret buying the DVD but I really am bewildered at the mediocrity of the overall quality. All 5 of these ladies are stunning and their costumes are marvelous, but it's all wasted when the video is corrupted like it is in this DVD.

The producers of the DVD really botched this one - the editing is even flawed, inexcusable for a professional label company. There is a brief scene at the end of "You Raise Me Up", while the audience is applauding, where you see David Downes waving bye to the crowd with the girls. The scene was clearly meant for the end of "Mo Ghile Mear", the finale, where David Downes runs to the front of the stage to take a final bow with the girls, but the editors somehow managed to misplace it. They didn't even cut it out. You're about to sell millions of copies worldwide and you make a mistake not even a novice video-editor makes? It is exasperating.

It's really too bad because the performance in itself was beautiful, hence the rating. However, you're going to have to overlook the downright awful picture quality to be able to appreciate the show. Especially, the medium-long range shots, where the picture becomes fuzzy and actually painful to focus on. There could not be a bigger disparity between the job performance by the musicians and the job done by the multimedia crew. As a Celtic Woman fan, I really feel bad for the girls because you would think the least they deserve is a decent recording of themselves.

Normally, I wouldn't recommend buying the DVD, because YouTube videos actually do the show more justice, but I must support my favorite musicians. My biggest regret is knowing that my money is going over to some bums who have no sense of decency or respect for the performers or their customers. Someone NEEDS to produce a DVD in High Definition - that would just about make my life complete.

I must point out that the SHOW in itself is magnificent, superb. These girls are beautiful and exceedingly GORGEOUS in their dresses, the music and singing is breathtaking, the arrangement of the stage is crafty, Powerhouse Courts and Gardens is aesthetically pleasing, and so on and so on; typical Celtic Woman performance. Five stars, I love them. If you're a true fan, you'll buy the DVD, ignore the horrid quality and enjoy what's being shown on your television all the same.

I love Celtic woman, one of my very favorite groups and they deserve 10 stars. The problem with this dvd was the video quality. I have a 50 inch plasma and most regular dvd's look great with my blu ray player that up-converts them. This dvd was not crystal clear as these girls deserve. It was fairly blurry and that is disappointing. The singing and performance was great.

A New Journey: Live at Slane Castle

I am a recent convert to Celtic Woman, and write with the zeal of a convert. I inadvertently ran across this live concert, "Songs from the Heart," airing during the pledge drive of my local PBS station, and despite the pledge drive annoyances, I was captured by Celtic Woman in the first five minutes. This DVD had not been released yet, so I immediately purchased the previous live concert DVD, "A New Journey." The two are distinctively different; for a fan of Celtic Woman, though, this is actually a good thing. It showcases the group in two almost entirely different styles of music and performance, with two largely different groups of vocalists.

"Songs from the Heart" is still the musical extravanganza, pyrotechnic (literally), exhibition of orchestral brilliance, vocal talent, virtuosity, vitality and diversity as the previous "A New Journey." The golden-haired Irish pixie from County Tipperary, Mairead, flashes with boundless energy dancing while playing the fiddle simultaneously without missing a step or a beat, appearing to be paying no attention to either the dance or the violin but simply alive with the music; she is the show-stopping scene stealer, if not the true star of Celtic Woman. But there is another dimension to Mairead as a performer: the classically trained violinist, the child prodigee who was playing Irish fiddle music at age 6, rapidly ascending through the finest music schools and academies of music to private masters instruction. In "Songs from the Heart," Mairead exhibits much more extensively this classical training, and she could just as well have made a career as a classical concert soloist of the first caliber.

"Songs from the Heart" could be called the "Thank you, United States!" concert (touring the U.S. gave Celtic Woman international recognition as they hit the "big time" here) -- acknowleged on stage to introduce the powerful song, "O! America!" No patriotic citizen of the U.S. who has lived through the decade following Sept. 11, 2001 could fail to be moved by this praise of America in the face of adversity, a stirring "pledge of allegiance" anew in music that truly did reduce me to tears and still does everytime I listen to it. It is ironic I suppose that it took a composer and musicians from Ireland -- a land all too familiar with terrorism, the politics of violence, ethnic and religious divsions and even hatred -- to find words and music that speak so eloquently and deeply to post-9/11 America.

In the same way, an American of Irish immigrant descent would have a heart of stone not to be moved (for me, again, consistently to tears) by "Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears," a tribute to the courage and heartbreak of the millions of Irish who entered the U.S. through Elis Island -- noting in its opening words that the first immigrant to set foot on Elis Island was Annie Moore, a 15-year-old girl on her own from Ireland. The other heart-breaker song is what seems at first like a pleasant lullaby sung by a mother to her child, "Goodnight, My Angel;" you have to pay close attention to the lyrics to realize the mother is dead, and sings this lullaby as she remains nearby her grieving child.

What sets "Songs from the Heart" apart from "A New Journey" is the virtual absence of traditional Irish music. There are a few rare exceptions in the vocal selections, most commanding among them the haunting "My Lagan Love." "Songs from the Heart" is mostly musical-theatre, jazz, popular contemporary, and Christain contemporary ("You Raise Me Up"). Some are familiar, only arranged for orchestra and a more light-classical style: "Fields of Gold;" "True Colors" (you will instantly recognize this as once used in a TV commercial, but I cannot remember for what product); the blues ballad, "The Moon's A Harsh Mistress;" and what sounds for all the world as if it came from a Disney soundtrack, "When You Believe." "Amazing Grace" is here, complete with bagpipes (just because you play it on bagpipes does not make it Celtic). Mairead's fiddle playing carries the weight of Irish folk music -- and carries it away, to be sure! And there are a few Irish songs: "Galway Bay;" "My Lagan Love;" and of course, the Irish-American "Danny Boy." There is also a brief instrumental played on the Uilleann Pipes -- the indiginous Irish version of the indiginously Scottish bagpipes, and a quite different instrument from its Scots cousin. (My guess is that Irish affinity for the bagpipes is a result of the settlement of Scots in Northern Ireland by England in the 17th-18th centuries, hoping that by seeding Ireland with Presbyterian Scots the Irish would give up their Catholic Church and faith; that failed, but apparently the bagpipes caught on.) But mostly this is contemporary music of various styles.

The reason for this is the major change in the vocalists of Celtic Woman between the earlier "A New Journey" concert and "Songs from the Heart," a critical change that I think in a way weakened the group. Of the five vocalists, three left the group. One, Hayley Westenra, joined Celtic Woman as an already established performance and recording star in opera, classical, and classical-crossover music, and returned to that venue. The loss of her operatic-trained voice has been replaced by Mairead's violin. The other two were losses to the core Celtic/Irish tradition, Orla and Meav. For Meav, a lawyer by vocation, music was a hobby, and she stepped down to become a full-time stay at home mom to her recently-born child. Orla, a virtuoso on the Celtic Harp as well as a trained vocalist, moved on to a solo recording and performing career.

Meav and Orla were the only two fluent Gaelic-speakers, and the absence of anything sung in Gaelic on "Songs from the Heart" is very noticeable. The marked switch to popular contemporary music and a minimum of mostly standard Irish fare is likely attributable to the loss of these two devoted advocates of traditional Irish folk music and the preservation of the Gaelic language. Hayley Westenra's departure left a gap in the "name recognition" area; though not as well known in the U.S., Hayley commands a very popular reputation as operatic and concert performer in the British Isles, Australia, her homeland of New Zealand, and strikingly, a large fan base in Japan and South Korea. Her place has been taken by the two remaining vocalists, Chloe and Lisa, both of whom have successful recordings but in pop and musical theatre. Lisa Kelly is a professional stage actress in musical theatre in Ireland and England and a successful jazz/blues singer there, and she was originally tapped for Celtic Woman precisely to bring that balance to a group that seemed at the time overly-classical. Chloe Agnew is another Wunderkind, who joined Celtic Woman as a 15-year-old high school student with a rare, bell-clear voice; she has performed since she was 6, and has a large fan base in Europe and America, but her preference is toward soft-rock and pop-contemporary music -- even though her performance of Rutter's "Pie Jesu" on "Songs from the Heart" is angelic. It is hard to judge from this one concert DVD what will be the place and shape taken by the two new-comers, Lynn Hillary, another classically-trained soprano with a love for traditional Irish music; and Alex, another musical-theatre professional.

Make no mistake though, even in this new configuration, Celtic Woman is a pulse-racing, joyous, musical extravangaza in which all the performers are at the top of the scales, both as soloists and in ensemble. My advice: By BOTH of the DVD concerts and enjoy the variety!

Hello folks,

My review is not on the Celtic Woman concert or music, they're excellent!! What compelled me to write a review is the DVD itself. I'm only a few seconds into the dvd and I paused it wondering what is wrong with my dvd player. The video quality is quite poor. I have a better resolution recording of the PBS special in standard def from my TV antenna! I've already compared them. This dvd should never have made it past quality control.

My greatest hope is someone creates a Bluray!
If there's ever been content that begs to be released in HD, it's the grandeur and beauty of the Celtic Woman's productions. The scenery, costumes, and stages are amazing!

Everyone cross your fingers or email for a Bluray!

I was warned before by other reviewers, but I was eager to own this DVD in my collection, because it is not available here in Europe.
The performance and stage presentation is great as usual (I saw them live last year). But the visual quality of this DVD is far from "state of the art". It looks like an old VHS cassette. Maybe this is the reason, why it is not on market here? I hope there will be a better release soon.